


The Darkest Hour

by ThePoetess



Series: Star Trek [8]
Category: Star Trek
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 09:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7839430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePoetess/pseuds/ThePoetess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because of Kirk's antics the crew of the Enterprise is placed in a bad situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The End

Irina Pavlovovich Galliulin's idea of fun was very different from the captain's, who liked more bar fights and trouble than he did anything else. He loved to be a rebel, and that is why they were where they were, because of him they were stranded on the planet. A planet that fought back. Yes, she thought, as a rock made a large whelt on her left calf, the Captain's idea of fun is a lot different than mine. "Keptin?" Irina bent down and felt for her phaser in her boot, she found the handle and stood pulling the phaser with her and flicking it from stun to kill, she pointed it at the clifftop where the local inhabitants were busying themselves with throwing rocks down at the stranded crew, then she flicked it back to stun, hating herself for ever thinking she could kill a innocent person, then a rock hit her in the arm. McCoy was by her side in a instant and was examining the large bruise on her arm. He dug in his medical bag a little too enthusiastically "I think I have something for that." Irina glowered "if I needed a doctor I vould have asked." He smiled at her "I missed you kid, I sure missed you kid, I really did." Irina waited, uneasy to use her phaser after the incident a month prior. How could she have been so stupid!? "I vas glad to hear you vere back, Dr. McCoy." McCoy glanced up at her as he dug into his bag "zhe honeymoon vas vonderful I vould guess? For I have never seen you smile." He shrugged, not wanting to give many details away "honeymoon was good. Glad to be back though kid, our honeymoon was honestly too peaceful, too quiet without Jim and the others, and I never thought I'd say this and I'll deny it if you tell anyone, but, I was homesick for the Enterprise." Irina smiled "and Miss McCoy?" "Christine had a wonderful time, a truly wonderful time. I'll show you some pictures if we ever get off this floating space rock. Oh why was I ever glad to be back?" Irina laughed "I have no clue."

Martha Jane Landon had never been so unhappy in her life. Pavel Chekov, her boyfriend, was dead, and to make matters worse, they were trapped on a planet where everything was not as it seemed. Irina Galliulin stood beside her tense and waiting for something to happen. "Are you alright?" Irina asked Martha as the latter started to cry, she nodded and choked as she wiped away the tears "just tired and scared." Irina looked up at the cliff "as am I." McCoy dug in his bag again and brought out a small tube of bruise cream, he rubbed it on Irina's arm and grumbled "we all are, but there's no sense whining about it, right now we need to think about survival." Hikaru Sulu scanned the surrounding area, then he saw it. A small dugout in the cliff wall, big enough for the crew. "There!" They made for the cave, rocks showering down from above. Irina heard someone scream and turned back quickly to help them, only to see one of the redshirts fall under a tirade of boulders, his companion was alive, but only just. Not thinking Irina ran towards him.

McCoy turned yelling with his customary sharp tone "are you plum crazy!?" Oh, he thought, Christine better not see this. He turned and ran back towards Irina and the Redshirt. Irina was tugging the redshirt forward, the redshirt yelling in a panic that he "would not leave him." By him he meant the redshirt buried under tons of rocks. McCoy got to them and pulled Irina forward yelling "what are you doing!?" She tripped and spat out with a hoarse panicked tone to her voice"I couldn't leave him there!" The thundering of the rocks ceased as they reached the cave and ran inside. Kirk slapped McCoy on the back before sitting down on a large rock. McCoy let go of Irina's hand and went to see Christine. "Sit here," Irina wearily instructed the redshirt, who whispered his thanks to her as she slid him down against the cold cave wall into a crouched position, "vhat is your name?" She asked him as she slid down shoulder to shoulder with him, he gave her a teary eyed glance before speaking "my name is Charlie, Charles Quentin Keeler," "Irina Maria Anastasia Pavlovovich Galliulin, I thought all redshirts didn't have names, because we called them redshirts, alvays, it is nice to know you have a name," she gave him a small smile which he returned as he raked a hand through his hair. Irina touched his hand and he flinched at her touch. Quickly she pulled her hand away and studied his dirt covered face for signs of injury, she found nothing but dirty smudges, large eyes, and stray spots of new grown stubble on his chin. "Are you in pain?" She brushed through his brown curls as he started to cry, he shook his head and suddenly wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his shirt, ashamed to have broken down in front of her. Irina touched his hand softly "it is okay to cry, you are not weak if you cry, it means that you have been too strong, for too long." "That man out there, I couldn't leave him, I couldn't leave, but I couldn't save him." McCoy bustled over and handed Irina a food packet "how's the kid?" He asked crouching in front of them, Irina shook her head glancing down blindly at the food packet "he'll live." McCoy nodded, teeth gritted in frustration "won't we all, well I've got something's to do kid, see you around." He moved over to Christine and they huddled together. Irina wrapped a arm about Keeler's hunched shoulders and he moved into her side "all vill be vell, you vill see." He shook his head, tight lipped, and disbelieving. "Can I call you Charlie? It vould be a relief to me if I didn't have to call you redshirt anymore," he nodded slowly "what can I call you? I am sick of hearing the other redshirts call you that hot engineer chick whenever they talked about you." Irina scowled "hot engineer chick? You can call me Irina." She opened the food packet then glanced at him "here ve must eat, come. There is food enough for two." She offered him the bag and they ate in silence.


	2. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Irina and Charlie get to know each other.  
> Martha comes to grips with the fact of Chekov's death and also finds out that she is not the only one who loved Chekov. Kirk is Kirk. Spock and Uhura are left in charge of the bridge.  
> Christine and McCoy have problems.

"Do you have family on Earth, Charlie?" Irina asked as she leaned back against Charlie and yawned as they took first watch at the entrance of the cave. He nodded and looking out at the darkening skyline said as he caught her yawn "a younger brother, Zachary, and my mother, you?" She shook her head "I had a mother and father once, and siblings." He touched her hand gently "what about a boyfriend? You have one of those on earth?" Her smile froze on her face and her eyes grew dark "I don't have time for a boyfriend, anyvay the last person I loved died, he vas a ensign on zhee ship, Pavel Chekov, did you know him?" Charlie shook his head "can't say I did." Martha Landon sat stock still and shocked in the dark cave. She had listened to the voices at the front of the cave and had been relatively shocked when Chekov's name was mentioned, she walked closer to the entrance and listened. "It vas many years ago, but my heart hurts, to die so young, as he did, and I still love him." Charlie responded but Martha could not hear what he said. Large tears coursed down her face and she wiped them away. Charlie reached his arm about Irina's shoulder and wrapped her under his jacket. They sat in silence until the end of their watch. Christine Chapel McCoy awoke to the sound of Jim Kirk's voice, and quickly closed her eyes before sitting up and yawning. She looked about and was displeased when she did not find the face of her husband among the others. Jim Kirk looked down at her "morning, oh I sent your husband out with the scouting party. Things might get a little messy."

And so it had. "Damnit! Damnit!" Leonard McCoy surveyed the damage done to the twelve redshirts who lay dead of unnatural causes before them. Irina looked stark white, while Charlie was sick, the doctor pensive "Doctor McCoy? Vhat happened to these people?" He shook his head roughly from side to side as he did a rough examination of the nearest redshirt "damnit! I don't know!" Irina touched Charlie's shoulder as she bent over him, he looked back at her and whispered slowly "I'm okay, I'm okay." He stood and wiped his mouth "I promise I won't get sick again." McCoy cursed again, drawing his companions attention "it seems that something sucked the salt out of them... Killing them in the process. Look at all these boils and sucker marks... Whatever it is it is a predator and we are its prey... Something is responsible for killing these men." Charlie held his phaser until his knuckles were white against the gun metal grey. Irina flipped out her communicator "Keptin?" The transmitter filled with static. "I think we need to keep moving." McCoy agreed and they moved on. Little did they know that they were being watched.

All that could be heard was static over the communicators as Jim Kirk tried to speak to McCoy "Bones god damnit! Come in! Hello!? Bones!?" Carol Marcus touched his shoulder gently "nothing yet?" Kirk shook his head "nothing, just static... What the hell has happened!?" Christine McCoy sat down beside Jim and watched him yell into the communicator "Engineer Galliulin! Come in! Please!? Are you there?" Through the static he heard a voice "Keptin!?" There was a word in Russian and then "Keptin, vee have a problem... Something is killing humans. Twelve redshirts dead. Be careful. Don't let your guard down. Also Vould you tell Miss McCoy zhat Mr. McCoy loves her?" Then the static thickened and they were left in silence once again.

Charlie was at his wits end. Two hours of walking later and all hell had broken loose. Figuratively that is. Irina slumped down next to him and watched McCoy as he scouted the landscape from their cliff side vantage point. "He has no clue vhatsoever about vhat killed those Redshirts," she handed Charlie a food packet and he cut it open with his father's old Swiss army pocket knife. He stared blankly down over the cliff side and into the valley "some of those people were my friends," Irina grasped his shoulder "I am wery sorry." A movement from the left drew their attention, they jumped up startled and alerted McCoy, who set his phaser on stun. "Do not be alarmed," a low rhythmic voice sang from the bushes "I mean no harm," the woman stood and inclined her head left to right watching them with her large eyes, she looked to Irina like her mother! Irina stood and stepped backwards a couple paces "mother!?" The woman stepped forward "yes, my darling, dearest girl?" Irina went white as a sheet "you look like my mother," another step towards Irina "yes, look at me, look at me, don't I look just like her?" Charlie stepped to Irina's side and grabbed her hand protectively "do not touch her." The woman walked forward outstretched arms lifted to hold Irina. "My daughter."

She looked just like her mother, except for something in her eyes. The woman, if she was that, came closer.

"You are not my mother, my mother is dead." The woman walked closer, forcing them back towards the cliffs jagged edge. 

Nyota Uhura had been having trouble communicating with any of the landing crew, and she was worried. There had been a brief moment when she had heard Hikaru Sulu's strained voice over the static and then she had heard nothing. Spock stood on the bridge, looking questioningly towards Nyota like she had all the answers. She didn't.

Irina felt about for her phaser which was at her hip, her shaking hands made it almost impossible to unlatch it from her belt. Now she was in danger, with a woman that looked like her mother, a newlywed doctor who had as little a idea of what to do as she did, and a young redshirt who was in danger just because he wore the color red and because he was protecting her. "You are not my mother!" Irina trembled as she raised her phaser and with shaking fingers pushed the trigger back. The whirring of the phaser started and the woman fell to the ground as she ran forwards with murder in her eyes. Dead.  
"Damnit! We could have done scientific analysis on her." Irina blanched "is scientific analysis another vay of saying that ve could perform experiments on her?"


End file.
